I need help building my computer for DAZStudio.
Mercblue22
Posts: 116
Hello all,
I hope this is the correct place for this topic. (I apologize if it is not!) I recenly decided it was time to upgrade my computer to handle the rigors of DAZStudio 9 (and IRAY) I like to use Genesis 3 figures and HD skintones, and I know that both if these are very taxing on my computer. So, I recently purchased a new tower, psu (1000Ws), motherboard
My current video card is a Nvidia Geforce GTX 760 2GB http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b2130/asus-gtx-760-directcu-ii-oc and my CPU/processor is an AMD http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1239961&tab=7&SRCCODE=WEBLET03SHIP&cm_mmc=Email-_-WebletMain-_-WEBLET03SHIP-_-03ship&utm_source=EML&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=WEBLET03SHIP&[email protected]
(I apologize if posting outside links is not allowed, I wanted to show you guys what I have currently)
I currently render is 3Delight and it takes about 45 mins to an hr to render 2 GEN3 characters with a background included. (an alleyway) And I have a budge of $400 this month. So, I wanted to ask you guys, which one of these items: (video card, processor, or more RAM) would allow me to better render my pics? I also noticed that Nvidia is about to release their GTX 1070 8GB videocard next week for $380. Would this help my comp render my pics quicker? Also, I do plan to start using IRAY in the near future, and I know those pics can take hours to render, which is okay with me. (I leave my comp and let the pics render in IRAY) I would like to slowly build up my computer to handle DAZStudio's renders in a timely manner.
Thanks guys, any help is greatly appreciated!
Merc
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Comments
That card does not currently have Iray drivers. You may want to wait a bit. Iray renders do not necessarily takes hours. Depends on the Cuda Cores in the video card and the Vram in the video card. A CPU only rendr of a complex scene may take hours. However the default time limit in Iray is 2 hours. The is often the issue behind complaints of bad iray renders. People renders scenes that use the cpu and can't convergence within 2 hours. These renders will look grainy.
FWIW $380 is a much lower than price than I have heard for the GTX1080.
Hello fastbike,
Thanks for the reply on the video card issue that I am dealing with. I didnt know the upcoming GTX1070 card didn't have IRAY drivers. I think I will wait for a while until they do release IRAY drivers for it. I am still learning how to render scenes using IRAY, as I have problems with lighting scenes. (My scenes come out very dark, no matter how many IRAY shaders I use) And you are right fastbike, a scene takes around 2 hrs to complete. I guess you really have have a mega system *like the one sickleyield has when she posted her IRAY clips on youtube, where her IRAY renders completed in less then 15 seconds' And yes, I do have issues with 'grainy' pics too, but that is because of lack of sufficient lighting, I read somewhere.
I will just wait and do more research on how to strengthen my computer when it comes to DAZStudio and render times (IRAY/3Ddelight) Thanks again for the coment fastbike, I appreciate it!
Merc
Superheroines, Iray uses PBR shaders which kind of require a realistic lighting setup and/or environment for reflective materials to look good. That's really the whole trick to it.
It's mimics real life lighting physics so you have to either light things and compose scenes like they would be in real life, or... think like a movie directory or photograper and fake some of it.
The more reflective a surface is, the more it relies on its surroundings for the brightness. If you have an empty scene with a few lights, there will be nothing to reflect and reflective materials will look darker or almost black, except for the hotspot of the light hitting it directly.
If the surroundings are poorly lit with dark walls, ceilings etc, putting a single strong light in front of a reflective object won't help either, as the reflections of the darkly lit environment will still darken the material.
If the scene is a stage, meaning you only have half a room (or whatever) in front of the camera, but the scene is empty behind it, you'll have the same problem, as there's nothing behind the camera that the objects in front of it can reflect. If you have an open world scene, even if you can't see in the render that there's no sky and clouds, just a light faking it, the PBR shaders will always know :)
You always need a scene that has something with some light to reflect from all angles, like the real world.
If any of that seems to be part of the problem, I'd try assigning an environment map to the Iray renders that somewhat matches the mood and colors of the scene. The enviro map will give shaders something to always reflect if the scene has gaps... it's like a complete scene on an image. Under Render settings / Environment / Environment map you can assign one and under Shaders/Iray/Resources you'll find a stock HDR enviro map: DTHDR-RuinsB-500.hdr
The enviro maps automatically add light to the scene too based on the lighting in the image.
I've seen HDR enviro collections on the DAZ store, and if you google for HDR environments you'll find more on texture and photo sites, they're quite popular these days as the CG industry as a whole is moving towards PBR as the new standard.
This blog here has some reading about how the HDR maps work and why you want them with PBR shaders: https://blog.sketchfab.com/how-to-create-your-own-hdr-environment-maps/
Alternatively, in some cases a JPG image will suffice and you can dial up the intensity in the Iray settings. You won't get the lighting quality of an HDR image as you can see in that blog post, but sometimes it's enough.
In such cases, if no HDR map matches the tones and mood you need, you can just take a random online photo and bring it into Photoshop, shift and tweak colors and brightness of the image until it resembles the mood you're looking for, and use that as your enviro map, it doesn't need to be a 360 degree panorama nor does it need to tile seamlessly (unless you have very reflective surfaces like chrome).... and I think the Iray settings had a setting to blurr the reflections or lighting which would help with crappy handmade enviro maps.
Since the enviro map won't be seen in that case, it doesn't matter what's on it and will just give off the lighting and reflections in the tonal range you're looking for. The more intersting the photo, the more interesting the results will be. A flat photo with no interesting lighting will give off equally boring reflections and lighting.
Hope that helps...
Iray shaders will not affect the darkness of a scene. More lights and/or a Tone mapping adjustment is needed. Basic photography lighting / exposure books or tutorials can also help since Iray models phyical lighting and effects.
Take a look at my gallery for some examples. You can also look for fastbike1 on deviant art.
For Iray the new nvidia 1070 (£300/$380) and 1080 (£619 founders edition) would be good except no Iray drivers for months! 1070 at lot more affordable and a slightly better performance/price ratio. May as well wait a few months for the Iray drivers as prices will fall as OEM editions become available. In the meantime if you can't wait 980Ti or 970 good Iray choices. For 3delight more cores better. Existing 6 core Intel 5820 (£320) or new 6800K (£360) Good. Sadly after that prices go sky high and we have 8 core 6900K (£900) and 10 core 6950K (£1400). About $1.4/£1 but US customers generally get better prices. That's what you would get if money no object but for most people the budget might be more limiting so get the best you can afford. For big Iray or when using Vue I let the picture take days which is not a problem if you have to go out to work.
nVidia has stated that Iray support for the 1000-series cards should be ready around late July to early August. So about 5-9 weeks away. Of course, it could take them longer. But that is what they've stated.
Thank you everyone for the great tutorials on IRAY lighting and recommendations on what video cards/CPUs to look for to boost my comp's speed for DAZ IRAY. :) I will have to experiment on the suggestions that strangefate (Thanks for the extensive explanation on how IRAY works!) has given me, and look into those CPUs/VCs that Roboman gave. I really would like to upgrade both my CPU/VC in time, so I will more then likely look into purchasing a video card when the 1000s release IRAY drivers and work on getting a CPU first.
Thanks again everyone for your help on this issue, I really appreciate it!
Merc
Hey guys,
Well, I managed to purchase the EVE GeForce 980TI Superclocked 6GB video card on Ebay for $410 last week. And it arrived earlier today, -the card was HUGE compared to my old Nvidia 760 2GB card- After installing the card and driver update, So, I started up DAZ 4.9 as I wanted to immediately see how quickly it would render a scene of 3 Genesis 3 Female and the baseball field here that I purchased. I thought it would render quicker then my last card, -a few mins before the scene begins to render-but like a -TWACK!- in the face, I was waiting 10, 20, 30 mins for the scene to appear in IRAY mode, and nothing appeared. Then I tried regular 3Delight mode, and the pic is taking 15-20 mins to render. I paid $410 for this card guys, thinking I would see a BIG upgrade from my old GTX 760 card. It seems like my render time has gotten worse with the new card, not better. I don't know if its my processor causing the massive delay (AMD FX-6100 Six-Core Processor 3.30gz), the 8GBs or RAM I have installed or the new motherboard that I purchased recently: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A33PHLA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If anyone can help me figure out why my computer suddenly got worse with this video card, when it comes to rendering times in IRAY or even 3Delight, I would be really appreciative of it. -Right now I feel like I blew $410 on something that didn't do anything to make my render speeds any better-
Thanks guys,
Merc
I always look at the easiest explanation first just to rule it out.
Do you have Daz set to render using your GPU and/or CPU?
Hello Piscesdreams,
Thank you for replying to my thread, I didn't know where else to turn to about this issue as I spent $410 on the Evga GTX 980TI 6GB card a few days ago, and its actually no better then my old Nvidia 760 2GB card. (which totally BAFFLES me!) I actually just have the video card selected in my IRAY settings, since I normally have both the video card and gpu selected, but it was halting my computer to a standstill. I thought when I had brought this card that it would increase my renders speed dramatically while using IRAY or even 3Delight, which also locks up my computer and has a terrible render time when I render Genesis 2/3 figures (usually 2 chars at once) and scene. Is this normal for renders of HD characters, even with a video card and system like mine Pisces? (AMD FX-6100 Six-Core Processor 3.30gz), the 8GBs or RAM)
Thank you again, any help is greatly appreciated!
Merc
If you have GPUZ installed you can see for sure if your card is being used in the render as GPU load will shoot up to 70-90% once Iray starts to render - You can download it free from here
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Have you tested using a smaller scene on base render settings as its possible that 3 figures & the baseball scene take up more than 6GB especially if your card is also running your monitors & other stuff.
Hello tottallou,
Thank you for the reply, andyes, I do have GPUZ downloaded, and it seems that rendering in IRAY does eat up a lot of my GPU load. I guess I have to just come to the realization that IRAY (and applying a lot to a scene) takes up lots of resources, this causing the 1 hr+ waiting times to render. Thanks again, I'll just have to render pics when I am not at the computer, it seems. :)
Merc